Removal of selected pesticides from water using granular activated carbon

Abstract

Pesticides are intensively used for the protection of field crops, orchards and vineyards, but they are also used in the removal of undesirable stands on non-agricultural land (railway embankments, playgrounds, handling areas, etc.), in water management (in coastal management, destruction of growths in irrigation canals), in forestry, etc. Regular application of pesticides increases their content in the aquatic environment and agricultural products. Their occurrence in water is relatively common and it follows that these substances are used in large quantities. Residues of these substances can persist in soils for 2 to 12 weeks. Due to their good solubility in water, they are easily transported from the soil to aquifers. Several methods can be used to remove pesticides from water, e.g., coagulation, filtration, precipitation, ozonation, adsorption, ion exchange, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation processes. Their effectiveness varies considerably and depends mainly on the chemical nature of the pesticide being removed. This article studies adsorption on two granular activated carbons Filtrasorb 400 and Norit 1240. Mixture of the pesticide standards (acetochlor, alachlor, dimethachlor, propachlor, metazachlor and metolachlor) was added to drinking water with concentration of approximately 1 µg/L. The experiments were performed in the glass bottles with the volume of 200 mL of water. The granular activated carbons (200 mg) were added to the bottles. Subsequently these bottles were regularly stirred, and the samples were taken out at times 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180, 240 and 360 minutes. Samples were taken by pipette into the 40 ml glass vials with added thiosulphate for preservation. Analyses of target pesticides were performed in laboratories of ALS Czech Republic in Prague. LC-MS using the internal standard method was used to determine chlorinated pesticides in water samples. The adsorption efficiency of pesticides removal and the adsorption capacity of granular activated carbon depends on the time of contact of water with the material. The results showed that the efficiency of selected pesticides removal and adsorption capacity for two granular activated carbons used varied. Filtrasorb F400 proved to be a better sorption material than Norit 1240. The efficiency of this material ranged from 18 to 60%, while the efficiency of Norit 1240 was significantly lower. Adsorption capacity of activated carbons for selected pesticides and reaction kinetics of 0th, 1st, 2nd and 3rd order was also studied.

The non-edible and disposable parts of oyster mushroom, as novel adsorbent for quantitative removal of atrazine and its degradation products from synthetic wastewater

“…Because of its simple design for sludge free environment and ability to involve low investment regarding initial cost and requirement of space, adsorption techniques are preferable over other methods [ 32 , 33 ]. Sorption of pesticides onto activated carbon has attracted the attention of several workers [ 34 , 35 ] mainly because of its effectiveness for removal of various organic pollutants at trace levels; however, the high cost of the process restricts its application at larger scales [ 36 , 37 ].…”

Recent Advances in Advanced Oxidation Processes for Degrading Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater—A Review

“…Using the adsorption method, for instance, a large variety of adsorbents with their functional groups being protonated or deprotonated, pharmaceutical compounds are easily immobilized through hydrogen-bonding or electrostatic interactions. Given these advantages, the adsorptive removal of pharmaceuticals has been intensively explored on different adsorbents, such as sludge-derived biochar [26], biochar [27], activated carbon [28], clay [29], alkali-activated clay [16], and polymeric materials [15]. This method has been demonstrated to be successful in removing and decreasing the bioavailability of a large number of pharmaceuticals from aquatic media.…”

Simultaneous removal of mixed pesticides and natural organic matter from surface waters by nitric and chlorosulfonic acid functionalized powdered activated carbon

“…30 Several adsorption studies on the removal of alachlor, acetochlor, metolachlor and fenthion from water and wastewater were reported in the literature. [32][33][34][35][36][37] However, the presence of natural organic matter (NOM) in water resources may pose complications in the effective removal of pesticides, especially because lowmolecular-weight organics have compelling competitive effects in removing micropollutants through the adsorption process. [38][39][40] The studies on pesticide removal by HNO 3 -and ClSO 3 H-modified AC in the literature are limited.…”